The trade and development policy of the European Union

This article examines the EU's trade and development policy from the 1950s to the present day. From its origins in France's demand that the EEC join in its colonial enterprise, this policy has grown to embrace all developing countries in a complex patchwork of trade preferences. However, it would be wrong to see this status quo as the natural evolution of an early interest in assisting developing countries. Rather, the EU's system of trade preferences represents a compromise between its desire to protect the economic interests of the erstwhile colonies and the demands of non-privileged developing countries for improved access to European markets. From a development perspective, this produces anomalies. Even today, via more favourable rules of origin, Sudan trades on better terms with the EU than Laos. However, as this article seeks to demonstrate, due largely to enforceable WTO rules, the EU is now coming to adopt principle - the actual needs of developing countries - over history as the basis for its future trade and development policy.